Liberal billionaire George Soros praises Trump for sanctioning Huawei

Billionaire left-winger George Soros praises Donald Trump for sanctioning Huawei as he warns China could use the company to gain authoritarian control over its people

Soros, the famed liberal financier, warned in January at the Davos economic forum that China was using technology to repress its people

Now he’s praising Donald Trump for holding Beijing’s feet to the fire by forbidding U.S. businesses from doing business with tech giant Huawei

But Soros fears Trump will bargain that leverage away as part of a trade deal

It’s presently illegal for American companies to supply components to Huawei

U.S. officials fear the company will become dominant in new 5G networks and use its switching equipment to spy on Americans

Left-wing billionaire Gorge Soros offered rare praise for Donald Trump on Monday night, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his hard line on Chinese technology is a major foreign policy benefit to the world.

President Trump this year forbade U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei, the mobile-phone behemoth that is closely intertwined with the Chinese government.

In his essay Soros praised Trump for declaring China a ‘strategic rival,’ calling it his ‘greatest’ foreign policy accomplishment. But he also urged Congress to prevent Trump from letting Huawei back in the game as a bargaining chip in a larger trade dispute.

Soros warned in January at the annual Davos economic forum that an all-out trade war represented Trump’s best leverage to rein in China’s human rights abuses.

And with high-tech components from American vendors, Huawei could become a dominant player in the new world of 5G mobile connectivity.

Billionaire liberal financier George Soros wrote in an op-ed that Donald Trump’s hard line against China and its tech giant Huawei is a major accomplishment, but worries he’ll walk it back in order to win trade concessions from Beijing

The Trump administration has placed Huawei on a list of companies that American suppliers are forbidden to do business with, fearing that its mobile phone products will be used to spy on Americans

‘The coming years will therefore be crucial in determining whether the U.S. or China comes out ahead in 5G,’ Soros wrote.

‘The current situation strongly favors the U.S. However, President Trump may soon undermine his own China policy and cede the advantage to Beijing.’

Soros noted legislation floating in both the U.S. House and Senate that would prevent Trump from allowing Huawei out of its penalty box without consent from Congress.

The 89-year-old financier believes Trump ‘wants to arrange a meeting with President Xi Jinping as the 2020 election approaches and make a trade deal with him, and he wants Huawei’s status on the table as one of his bargaining chips.’

The Trump administration is deeply suspicious that China is positioning Huawei as a major global player in the wireless market, in part, so it can use its network switches and phones to spy on Americans.

Soros has been loudly critical of the ‘social credit system’ Beijing is developing to reward and punish individuals and corporations depending on their personal and institutional behavior.

In January at Davos he complained thjat Chinese people ‘will be evaluated by algorithms that will determine whether they pose a threat to the one-party state. People will then be treated accordingly.’

He warned of a ‘mortal danger facing open societies from the instruments of control that machine learning and artificial intelligence can put in the hands of repressive regimes.’

Soros claimed Monday that ‘the social-credit system Beijing is building, if allowed to expand, could sound the death knell of open societies not only in China but also around the globe.